PILATES and lifestyle w/ and emphasis on food and DRINK

From Meat to Meatless.

Puerco en Adobo from Puebla. I was able to use the rest of the adobo sauce I had made for the Tasajo de Cerdo for this dish. Now, the pork was delicious, but the star of the dish was the traditional Mexican Rice. I used the pork broth that was left over after cooking the pork in place of the water and/or chicken broth I would normally use to make the rice. It was out of this world good.

Andrew’s favorite dish to date. He said he had been waiting for a “comfort food” dish and Carne de Puerco en Pipían de Chile Pasilla from Michoacán won first place. This was a pork dish with a pasilla chile and pumpkin seed sauce. The last pumpkin sauce I made called for them to remain in the shells, while this dish called for the seeds to be hulled. It was almost creamy tasting like a Tikka Masala, but the chiles made it more earthy. The most important part of the whole recipe was not throwing away the seeds from the dried chiles. Most of the recipes so far have me removing the seeds and veins from the dried chiles and discarding them. This recipe had me remove the seeds, toast them in a pan and grind them into a powder to use in the sauce. Genius!

Obviously pork and pasilla/ancho chiles go well together. While all these dishes seem to have a similar color, each one tastes completely different from the rest. Asado de Bodas Estillo Parras from Coahuila (Parras Pork and Chile Wedding Stew) was shared with Katie and Mark on Saturday. I guess I should have made it for Andrew, maybe it would have given him some inspiration (wink, wink). Unfortunately for Andrew, not us, there were no leftovers. It was a thick, spicy and awesome stew. It had both ancho and guajillo chiles inside along with oregano, cumin, bay leaf, cloves, garlic and vinegar. The meat had been marinating in the spices since the night before and the flavors were on point!

As you can see above the past couple dishes have been very meat heavy, pork specifically. And while I do love pork I have been feeling a little “meated” out. I decided that this week would be vegetarian week! Last night was the first night and I chose to make the Chilacayotes Punchuches from Morelia and Tacámbaro. I was unable to find Chilacayotes, but was able to substitute zucchini instead. This was a dish of few ingredients and a ton of flavor. We didn’t just eat this dish; I also sauteed up some spinach with garlic and roasted some salmon (I know salmon is not vegetarian, but it sounded so good yesterday). Tonight may be veggie quesadillas with vegan cheese of course! Damn you, dairy allergy!